I’m a talker. That’s a surprise to some, but not to most. But my daughter, a thriving kindergartener, puts me to shame. As soon as she opens the car door, it starts. Talking 100 words per minute, I know who did what to whom, who spilled milk in the lunchroom, who got into trouble – I know…
Entrepreneurs are a different breed. Not everyone can, is willing, or should go out on a limb and risk so much. Being in business for oneself is hard work but the potential reward, in my opinion, is what draws us in. The ability to build something from ground up or to take over something that’s failing and make…
If you ask many small business owners what business they’re in, they will tell you simply what they do. ‘I build websites’ or ‘I distribute promotional goods.’ While these statements are true, you only have a few seconds to make an impression and those statements, in no way, give prospects any reason to pursue the conversation further. I find these…
It has now been a full month of school for my daughter. Daily, her backpack is filled with popsicle stick and glue contraptions, a sticky lunchbox and somewhere near the bottom, classwork she has completed for Mom to see and sign. I’ve noticed, however, that all the worksheets are completed in crayon. We use pencils in our house, so I was concerned….
Some of my most treasured moments are the times when I watch my daughter pretend play. Of course she has dolls and talking games, but it’s those times that she picks the simplest things and turn them into something magical. As I sat at my computer to work, she found a bag of orphaned crayons and spread them onto the…
Who would have guessed you could learn so much from a crayon, a double ended one at that. Over the last two weeks, we’ve discussed the marketing mix. Familiar to many, foreign to some. Today, let’s knock out the last two Ps, promotion and placement. product price promotion placement Last week, I again left you with a…
In last week’s posting, I put a question before you. If you can get a 24 ct box of crayons for about 50 cents or less, why would the crayon maker in our example price the 6 ct double ended crayons at $2? I mean, it’s fewer crayons so how do they get away with that? Well, it’s simple…
On a recent excursion to a mass retailer, with my child in tow, we, of course, found ourselves facing the crayon aisle.  We start the slow walk down the aisle, packed with so many things to see, feel and knock over. And as I pick up the last victim of her play, it actually held my interest.  It was a six count package…
Edwin Binney, along with his cousin, C. Harold Smith, formed Binney & Smith in 1885. The company created many things, like a new type of black coloring used to make black car tires and later school supplies. But at the gentle nudge of Edwin’s wife, a school teacher, Binney & Smith did the unthinkable. In 1903, they created…
Well, it’s back to school time.  I find myself, for the first time, standing in a sea of parents, buggy to buggy, slightly pushing and nudging,  all reading a slip of paper with a common theme – the school supply list for the upcoming year. This is a long list and I wonder that if I’m buying all…
Of the vast selection of crayon options available to both young and old, I would have to say that the cool triangular ones are one of my favorites. Not only don’t they roll off the table when my daughter insists on pouring them all out. But, per the box, they help the little ones develop their fine motor…
Being that buying a new box of  crayons on a weekly basis has become the new norm in my household, I’ve taken the time to ask myself a question. Are all crayons created equal? To the average crayon user, the answer would probably be yes – a crayon is a crayon, right? Well, not exactly. You…